A new bill will allow a person to be tried and convicted of a criminal offence without seeing all the information relied on by the Crown and without the right to be present, the NZ Law Society says.

Law firm supports Aussie entrepreneurs

Corrs Chambers Westgarth is to help the next generation of Australian entrepreneurs with a new scholarship. The arrangement with the University of Melbourne’s Wade Institute means that the law firm will support one student enrolled in the recently created Master of Entrepreneurship. As the exclusive legal partner, Corrs will provide financial assistance for living and learning expenses, as well as deliver course content to help develop students’ understanding of the legal issues facing start-ups.

Clyde & Co expands global marine team
Andrew Gray will be joining the global marine team of Clyde & Co in Singapore. The former deck officer with the Royal Navy qualified as a solicitor on his return to shore and has been a shipping lawyer in Asia-Pacific for more than 11 years. He will join Clyde & Co Clasis in Singapore in the New Year from Hill Dickinson.

Hogan Lovells hires team from Latham & Watkins
A team of three partners from Latham & Watkins in Dubai is joining Hogan Lovells. Charles Fuller and Andrew Tarbuck will join the corporate practice and Anthony Pallet will join the finance team. The hires build on expansion of the firm’s Middle East team in recent months.

WLG chair re-elected
The chairman of international law firm Wragge Lawrence Graham & Co has been re-elected to the role. Andrew Witts became interim chair for two years when legacy firms Lawrence Graham, and Wragge, merged. He will now add four years to the term, which was due to end next year. The role was contested by one other candidate but Witts will now expect to be chairman through to 2020. WLG will officially merge with Canada’s Gowling in January 2016 and will have a management board from across the two firms.

Chinese criminal justice system criticised in new report
The Chinese criminal justice system is one tarred by abuse, forced confessions and lawyers who are also abused, detained and tortured. The assessment is made in a report from Amnesty International which says the Chinese government’s claimed advances in human rights have done little to change the system. In the report titled No End in Sight Amnesty’s China researcher Patrick Poon questions: “In a system where even lawyers can end up being tortured by the police, what hope can ordinary defendants have?” The report includes accounts of the torture of lawyers including former prosecutor Tang Jitian who says: “I was strapped to an iron chair, slapped in the face, kicked on my legs and hit so hard over the head with a plastic bottle filled with water that I passed out.” The full report is available at amnesty.org